John Welsh, the Irongray Covenanter. 71 



indulg-ed. He had not lived " peaceable and orderly " 

 since he was ejected from his parish, being, in fact, a for- 

 feited rebel since Pentland. Lauderdale did not intend his 

 toleration to extend to men like Welsh. The year after the 

 Indulgence (1670) came " the clanking Act " against conven- 

 ticles, condemning field preachers to death. It is said that 

 Ring Charles was not well pleased with it, remarking that 

 bloody laws did no good. Cassilis alone voted against it in 

 the Scottish Parliament, so Lauderdale had his way. 



Welsh in Fife, 1674. 



It is one thing to pass Acts of Parliament ; it is quite 

 another thing to make them work. Lauderdale could pass 

 what he liked in the Scottish Parliament, yet when Lauderdale 

 was at- Edinburgh his own parish church at Leslie, in Fife, 

 was empty, save for his family, while Welsh preached to vast 

 multitudes of Fife folk. Blackader, who was with him, says 

 the gatherings in 1674 amounted to between eight and ten 

 thousand persons. His congregation consisted not merely of 

 the meanest commons, as at Cambusnethan six years before, 

 but many lairds and noble ladies were among his hearers. 

 One of the nobles, Lord Cardross, was fined in 1675 _£'iooo 

 for attending a conventicle at which Welsh was one of the 

 preachers. (P.C., iv., 1675.) Forty persons, mostly heritors 

 in Fife, were found g'uilty of being at field conventicles at 

 which John Welsh did preach, and were fined heavily (P.C., 

 1674). A very aristocratic lady, the Countess of Crawford 

 (Lady Lindsay), was among his hearers. She was the aunt 

 of the Duke of Hamilton, who after the Duke of York was 

 heir to the Scottisli Crown. (Blackader.) 



Welsh was \ ery popular as a preacher with the fair sex. 

 C. K. Sharp, in a note of Kirkton's History, says that 

 Welsh rode to conventicles accompanied h\ a number of 

 armed men, called Mr Welsh's body guard, and he had all 

 the fanatic women in the country, who usually gave warning 

 of the enemies' approach." He also tells how in February, 

 1679, at a con\enticle at Langside, Margaret Stewart, Lady 

 Fleming, wife of Sir W. Fleming of Fern, and the wife of 

 Wm. Anderson, Pro\ost of Glasgow, " sat upon high chairs 



